I don't understand how any trained lawyer can be a JW. Yet they do exist and the power of WT Legal is clear. Being a scientist and a Witness must be so much harder. Lawyers are told to focus on text. The context of a statute must be considered. How do you do legal work all day and then, in a flash, use a reasoning style that is the complete opposite of what you learned in law school and continue in practice?
Indeed, I see in my own life how the legal training impacts my study of mainstream Christianity. I am very detail oriented. Law requires you to detach from your passions and evaluate both sides.
This scientists field does not appear to directly impact WT teachings. I could be wrong. I still wonder, though, how anyone trained in science can read the WT and not get sick.
It all boils down to being human. Law school training does not affect my personal triggers. I am not rational about them. Finding a cause, a home, a place where you belong is a strong force.
I want to state how much the WT quotes to outside scholars impressed me when I was young. Had I not received further training I would still think that almost all smart people believed the WT. The Awake impressed me. Unless you have the postsecondary education, how can you compare the WT to anything legitimate? Also, other churches do the very same thing. The Roman Catholic Church does it.
This raises serious questions for me b/c education is aligned with elitism. Not many people change classes in America as we would like to believe. I feel very fortunate that I had the exposure. One can see why denying postsecondary education would be important to them. I do wonder how they keep all these university educated Bethelites in line. We know they are the exceptions to the rule. I mentioned before that when slave revolts happened, and they were frequent, the house slaves were the leaders b/c they had the education. Slaves were entrusted with complex commercial deals. When they saw broader white society and not just the field work, their rage was greater. Once you add inner knowledge from working inside with literacy, you have people who were servile only on the outside surface.
I have yet to explain to an active Witness how secular sources are distorted. With my present experience, the WT both amuses and repels me. I can see myself still being loyal if I did have the exposure. I can't help think about eating from the tree of knowledge in Genesis.
